Weird News

2013 Word of the Year: Selfie

by Matt Cantor, Newser Staff

(NEWSER) – What do the first daughters, Pope Francis, and countless celebs have in common? They all made headlines with selfies in 2013, making it easy for Oxford Dictionaries to choose its annual word of the year. "Selfie" was a rare unanimous decision for the organization, it reports on its blog. The word was actually featured as far back as June 2012 on the dictionaries' site, but this year, "it seems like everyone who is anyone has posted a selfie somewhere on the Internet." Some selfie facts:

"Selfie" has been around since at least 2002, the blog notes. That's when an Australian student wrote online about falling over while drunk at a 21st birthday party, accompanying his post with a photo of a damaged pair of lips, the Telegraph reports (it has the photo). "Sorry about the focus, it was a selfie," his post read.

Though the word has existed for more than a decade, "it has only entered really common use in the past year or so," the blog points out. In fact, usage has increased 17,000% within the year, Time reports.